Volume Shadow Copy Service error

[robvil]

Hi,

 

I have 3 Windows 2008 SP1 webserver edt.

 

When doing a backup with 7.6.123 I get tgis error logged:

 

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error querying for the IVssWriterCallback interface. hr = 0x80070005. This is often caused by incorrect security settings in either the writer or requestor process.

 

Operation:

Gathering Writer Data

 

Context:

Writer Class Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}

Writer Name: System Writer

Writer Instance ID: {34162f4c-59ff-468e-848d-cb4b3d8dd7dc}

 

I saw the same error when I try to backup a Windows 2008 DC. Will this be fixed in the next update?

 

Regards

Robert

 

[Mayoff]

i do not recall others reporting this issue before. You could have something installed that is preventing Retrospect vss access.

[robvil]

I reported this issue to support month ago.

 

This is standard Windows 2008 32-bit servers. No 3. party software installed except retrospect client.

 

The Windows OS is from Microsoft Licensing and not OEM.

 

I have looked around for a solution without any success.

 

Regards

Robert

 

[robvil]

Just dobbelt checked. The error is on all my Windows 2008 servers. This indeed looks very much as a retrospect bug.

 

I cannot understand why the retrospect client and the retrospect server both reports clients as backup successfully even with this error?

 

Robert

 

[Mayoff]

Do you get any errors in the Retrospect operations log or just in the Windows event logs?

 

What happens when you run the command "vssadmin list writers" from within windows?

[robvil]

I only see errors in the windows applicastion log.

 

Writer name: 'System Writer'

Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}

Writer Instance Id: {3454556a-afed-47a2-a833-f23df4f068f9}

State: [1] Stable

Last error: Non-retryable error

 

Writer name: 'ASR Writer'

Writer Id: {be000cbe-11fe-4426-9c58-531aa6355fc4}

Writer Instance Id: {cbf5bf39-70de-492d-9711-173648773249}

State: [1] Stable

Last error: No error

 

Writer name: 'TermServLicensing'

Writer Id: {5382579c-98df-47a7-ac6c-98a6d7106e09}

Writer Instance Id: {ced0a027-ae64-42a7-bd54-fd45921d7db9}

State: [1] Stable

Last error: Non-retryable error

 

Writer name: 'WMI Writer'

Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}

Writer Instance Id: {3b47a79e-d1b8-454b-84c5-4e627e06c334}

State: [1] Stable

Last error: No error

 

Writer name: 'BITS Writer'

Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0}

Writer Instance Id: {005734ef-6abc-4511-8264-b86f6c90b042}

State: [1] Stable

Last error: No error

 

Writer name: 'COM+ REGDB Writer'

Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}

Writer Instance Id: {506bb4b8-a085-4b73-a113-0b6c17192aad}

State: [1] Stable

Last error: No error

 

Writer name: 'Registry Writer'

Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}

Writer Instance Id: {f05529a1-a9cf-468c-b3ee-8d3ddd3188f4}

State: [1] Stable

Last error: No error

 

Writer name: 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer'

Writer Id: {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f}

Writer Instance Id: {7dcceacd-79ba-4839-ae6e-299edb932701}

State: [1] Stable

Last error: No error

 

As you see "system writer" is faulty. Most likely because retrospect client is doing something wrong.

 

Robert

 

[Mayoff]

Most likely because retrospect client is doing something wrong

 

When you run that command, Retrospect is not in use. That is a direct request to the OS, not Retrospect. So any errors reported from the command have nothing to do with Retrospect.

 

I do not know what a "Non-retryable error" error is or why Windows is reporting it when you run the Windows command. If you uninstall Retrospect or Retrospect Client the same error is going to happen.

[robvil]

"When you run that command, Retrospect is not in use."

Correct.

 

"That is a direct request to the OS, not Retrospect. So any errors reported from the command have nothing to do with Retrospect."

 

Wrong. That list the state of the installed VSS writers and there last state doing something. Either requested by Microsoft own backup software or 3. party software like Retrospect. So what it tells us is that the last call to the VSS writers was doing something wrong and that must be Retrospect. Let me say again - if I use MS built in backup tool I get no errors, so how can you say it's not a retrospect issue?

 

I have seen these errors with BackupExec also, just in other situations. Often fixed by updating BackupExec.

 

"I do not know what a "Non-retryable error" error is or why Windows is reporting it when you run the Windows command. If you uninstall Retrospect or Retrospect Client the same error is going to happen."

 

No it is not.

 

Robert

 

 

 

 

[Mayoff]

I asked one of our engineers to look at this thread.

 

His basic feeling was that if no error is reported in Retrospect, then you should not be worried about this issue.

 

His words "If indeed Retrospect doesn’t report any errors, I think the user can ignore these.

 

See:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951036

 

For corroboration:

“However, the Setup program is completed successfully and the restore point is created successfully. Therefore, you can safely ignore the event that is logged in the Application log.

RESOLUTION You can safely ignore this event.”"

[robvil]

Thank you.

 

I´m not sure yet and acording this article this is not normal (only with office 2007 on vista).

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc734235(WS.10).aspx

 

I have just checket another 2008 server where I have both a backup running with retrospect at 12.00pm and here I get these errors and another backup job running at 6am with MS buildin tool and when this job runs there is no errors at all.

 

Still looks as a retrospect issue to me and I do not believe it´s safe to ignore these errors.

 

Is other seeing this error log on 2008 systems?

 

Robert

 

Edited August 14, 2009 by Guest

[Ramon88]

Not here, but we use Windows 2008 STD boxes, not the WEB edition.

[robvil]

I also have some STD versions and they do the same.

Even with brand new installed systems without any thing installed.

 

Could it be my retrospect server causing this and not my clients maybe?

 

Robert

 

[Mayoff]

After reading emails from a different Retrospect engineer he believes that the error in VSS is probably caused because of the known Retrospect bug backing up active directory on Windows 2008.

 

Our next Windows release will address that active directory bug.

[robvil]

Thank you.

 

Today I installed a fresh Windows 2008 web edt. and put the retrospect client on it. Ran a complete windows update and took a backup. (still with the VSS error).

 

Then I reinstalled the server from scratch, installed the backup client and did a complete restore. Dispite of the VSS error it restored successfully.

 

So basicly it seems the restore works (without any intensive testing). I still thing the VSS error is caused by wrong code design in the retrospect client.

 

Regards

Robert

 

 

[Mayoff]

I still thing the VSS error is caused by wrong code design in the retrospect client.

 

see my current post above.

[ddixon]

I also get those errors, (event id 8194), in my event log with a Windows 2008 server client that is a domain controller. I am running Retrospect 7.7. It is very annoying, and so far I having not gotten any help from Retrospect Tech Support on it.

Edited January 20, 2010 by Guest

[ddixon]

Is there anybody out there?

[Mayoff]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc734235(WS.10).aspx

[ddixon]

I have already followed Microsoft's steps and have gotten pretty much the same results as RobertVil. I have no problems at all when I use the built-in Microsoft Backup program. Also, the main Retropect Multi Server program does backups of the computer that it is running on, another Windows Server 2008 domain controller machine, without any problems. It is just the Retrospect Client software that has the problem. I thought that might be a result of the Active Directory bug, but I've upgraded both the server and the client software to version 7.7 and I still get this error on the client.

[today]

I am getting this exact same error under 2008 R2. But this is not a problem that I can ignore. Retrospect Server 7.7 is hanging when trying to back up any of my 2008 R2 machines, and the only thing I can find that indicates a problem is this VSS error entries like other people are getting above.

[bvaandr]

I have been running Retrospect for WIndows 7.7.208 from an XP SP2 host, backing up several file share directories on a Vista SP1 64 bit client v 7.7.106. I have 4 scripts directed at 4 different directories on the same client's drive. The client system WIndows Application logs consistently show 4 VSS (ID 8194) errors within about 1 minute of the scheduled starting times for each script. The Retrospect log shows no errors and the 4 errors in the client system log are always followed by a event ID 8224 showing VSS service shutting down due to idle time out. The same pattern of VSS errors (but five of them instead of four) also shows up on another Vista 32 bit client on completely different network and being backed up by a completely different copy of Retrospect 7.7.208 running on a Vista 32 bit host. Script is running with admin privileges on the host and with a user ID that has admin privileges on the client machine also. Again, no Retrospect errors are generated. It looks like last post by Mayoff saying a fix was on the way for the Active Directory bug presumably responsible was last August. Seems like that most likely predates the 7.7.208 version, although update history information not easy to find on EMC site. SO question is - was it fixed or are my VSS errors evidence of a new bug? Timing of errors are definitely associated with Retrospect backing up clients. There are no VSS errors showing up on the host machine when running its own local backup. I have just updated to 7.7.235. Will see if errors continue. B

[Bryan Pearson]

For me the error is ABSOLUTELY RELATED to Open Files backup. Whether locally or backing up a client, version 7.7.235 (and 7.7.203) simply closes (crashes) and 5 VSS errors are put into the event log, with event ID 12302. I can run the same script without Open File enabled, and it works, with no errors. I looked at the registry key mentioned in:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907574

and found no registry keys listed at all for any programs. I am stuck for now, but I am still looking. If 7.7 uses VSS, shouldn't it put a key in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex\Catalogs

This is really killing me right from the get-go because it is occurring on a clean install of Windows 2003 SP2 x64. Backups of Exchange 2003 mailboxes work without difficulty.

[Bryan Pearson]

I found a solution that worked, at:

http://forums.techarena.in/windows-server-help/889459.htm

The solution posted by Nomad worked:

2. Delete the

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\EventSystem\{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216}\Subscriptions

key. (Just delete the Subscriptions subkey; leave the EventClasses key.)

 

3. Restart the server.

 

4. Run the "VSSADMIN LIST WRITERS" command.

 

this worked for me. Open files backups are now working.